We continue to emphasize the importance of standards-based interfaces, using NETCONF, RESTCONF, and YANG, for managing these cloud-native versions of VNFs. In a previous application note “ConfD on Docker”, we gave a description of how to run ConfD inside a Docker container. Containers are a popular method of packaging the micro-services which make up a cloud-native application. A container orchestrator is used to manage and deploy these containers in a distributed environment. One of the most popular container orchestrators is Kubernetes.

Container and container orchestration software such as Docker and Kubernetes have provided a new set of tools for building scalable and robust distributed applications. We wanted to provide a deeper look at how to run ConfD daemon and ConfD applications inside Kubernetes. In my new application note “ConfD and Kubernetes”, we extend the previous “ConfD on Docker” application note to describe how you can deploy the ConfD daemon as a containerized application in Kubernetes with additional ConfD applications running as separate containerized applications in Kubernetes.

This application note provides greater usage of ConfD by discussing several steps necessary in order to run ConfD inside Kubernetes. This note describes the Kubernetes setup which we will use, building the Docker images for ConfD and the ConfD application, and then creates and runs the pods containing these images in Kubernetes. This note doesn’t put aside software applications written before the advent of Docker and Kubernetes. Those still have an important role to play as they provide important tools which continue to be needed even in cloud-native applications. This application note simply shows one way to run ConfD in Kubernetes. At many points, different choices could have been made, since Kubernetes provides much flexibility in how applications are set up and deployed

Take the time to read my latest application note on “ConfD and Kubernetes”, I think you will find it useful in taking your usage of ConfD to the next level.